GONE TO TEXAS

Josey Wales is so fast he guns down three men facing him before one of them can clear leather. This wild yarn masquerades as a true story -- but the hero, folks, is not even listed in J.R. Nash's encyclopedia Bloodletters and Badmen. Even so, dialogue and detail have the unshaven authenticity of a WANTED poster. Just before the Civil War, Josey's wife and son are burned to death in Mis. souri by pillagers. During the War, he is a guerrilla, raping and raiding indiscriminately, and by mid-novel he has killed 35 men and is being pursued for the 7500-dollar robbery of a Federal paymaster. Texas-bound, he falls in with Lone Watie, an elderly Cherokee, and an outcast Cheyenne woman, Little Moonlight. Singlehandedly killing a whole gang of Comancheros (guys who sell firewater and firearms to Comanches), he rescues a buxom miss and her grandmother and decides to set up housekeeping with them. When their little ranch-to-be is threatened by a huge Comanche war party, he rides out to meet the Indians. . .alone. . . . Almost in double-vision, as if one were watching a kung fu epic at the same time. Or Clint Eastwood, who's already bought this property, since impossible odds make great fun.